Ridgeland fisherman reported missing found dead in Savannah River, officials say
A 56-year-old Ridgeland man died of accidental drowning after he went overboard on a solo fishing trip earlier this week, according to Hampton County Coroner Angie Topper.
The man was identified as Darrell James Gaymon.
Gaymon’s family had reported him missing Tuesday after he didn’t come home, and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources was notified, a DNR news release said.
First responders located Gaymon’s boat within hours at the back of a remote ox-bow lake off a cut in the Savannah River where he liked to fish. His body was recovered Wednesday afternoon and turned over to the Hampton County Coroner’s Office.
Coroner Topper said it appeared Gaymon fell in the water when his seat, which he had tried to fix before the fishing trip, broke. She said he was not wearing a life preserver, and his family had said he was not a strong swimmer.
DNR is conducting a separate boating accident investigation.
Gaymon is the second Jasper County resident to die in a boating incident on the Savannah River this month.
A Hardeeville man, 42-year-old Charles Bradford Keiffer, died after a barge crash near Hutchinson Island in Georgia, close to the South Carolina state line.
